If Vince gave it a proper chance, could nWo in WWF have worked?

[Pay Per Ghost]

The nWo wasn't gonna work because the fans wouldn't stop cheering for Hogan. Having just watched Hulk STILL Rules, it seriously is a problem when a supposed top heel almost kills a top face (Dwayne) and still gets a thunderous babypop.

Hulk had to turn and there's no nWo without that man. If somehow they would've him gotten over as a heel, ye then we would have some gang warfare.

 

[Midnight_express]

By then the NWO was a busted flush. It should have dead and buried in 98, but it was bischoffs only good idea and he would not let it go.

 

[Tattooed Jesus]

I could have cared less about Hogan at that point and would have loved to have seen HBK, HHH, Nash, Hall, Waltman as a DX/nWo hybrid of some sort. HHH wasn't gonna give up the spotlight to anyone at that point though and then Nash tore his quad, Hall fell off the wagon again, and everything went to shit in a basket.

 

[Nada]

From what Meltzer said, Hogan was annoyed by Hall at the time who would not work out in the gym and general had alot of problems, so Hogan wanted to actually turn face so that he could distance himself from Hall (Nash was not a problem tough)

But lets assume that they still stuck together, the problem was that both Hogan and Hall lost to Austin and Rock, its classic WWE booking they kill a angle before it even begins.

Their political power in WCW was actually what made the angle work (initially), they were made to look like badasses and the angle took off. In WWE something like that would never go for more than a few weeks, before a "good guys win!" payoff commences on PPV (see Nexus)

Make no mistake, i am not saying that Hogan having power is good but initially for nWo its what made it work so well.

Vince spent alot of money...on nothing basically but a nostalgia run from Hogan, the other 2 did nothing (which is nothing new from them).


I think most fans have forgotten just how horny the McMahons were for the camera (bar Linda) back then, they were involved in everything. So naturally Vince was involved in the nWo angle as he was the one who brought them in, which ofcourse makes ZERO sense, he even said that he wanted to poison and destroy WWE. Why? No reason

So it never came across as:

"omg nwo are here to take over wwe!!!!"

It came across as:

"oh Vince gave them some money so he could stick his head in that high profile storyline, he also failed to build WM18 properly for his 2 biggest stars, so he fed them Hogan and Hall"

Its pretty shocking to think that neither Austin nor Rock has anything to do for WM18, where the focus was on Hunter (surprise!) who also had one of the worst main events in WM history (which was blamed on Jericho ofcourse).

No wonder Austin and Rock left short thereafter

 

[FlairFan2003]

Well it depends - like the DX reunions of recent years, it clearly wasnt the same (one good thing about HBK retiring, no more ridiculous DX reunions, two near 50 year old men acting like teenagers, they were old and looked bad in 1997, it wasnt any better that last few times). However, where DX was as much about the teenager antics and sorry comedy, the NWO was at its height a great, evil heel faction, like The Horsemen, The Freebirds, etc. They were more violent and more serious than DX ever was.

The first problem is why would Vince want to bring in the guys who's whole purpose in WCW was to take over the company and destroy it ? WWE was HIS COMPANY - It made sense he wanted to get rid of Flair who at the time owned half the company, but why destroy his livelihood to do it - McMahon didnt want to share control of WWE with Flair because his character never wants to share anything, he's the bully, he's not a team player. Vince's character was also very greedy, did it really make sense he'd purposely destroy his own kingdom just to spite Flair ?

Now, I think turning Hogan face was likely a last second thing, based on the positive nostalgia response he got from the live crowd in Toronto. However, I dont think Vince planned on having Scott Hall fired for his on going behavior problems (literally just a few months after returning) and of course no one knew Kevin Nash was about to embark on a decade long journey of great work in short stints undermined by constant injuries. the whole "HBK is NWO" thing was a desperate attempt to save it, but that was when HBK was not wrestling and hadnt even been a part of WWE TV in months. The injured retired guy who cant fight is joining your group and this scares me ?? Of course we know that HBK eventually was able to get back in the ring, when he joined the NWO no one knew that and of course it was greeted with a collective Who Cares ?

Having Flair turn heel and try to take over the group made even less sense. Anyone who watched any wrestling between 1997-2000 knew that Flair hated the NWO, alligning himself with group for no real reason made absolutely no sense. In fact, one of the few things that DID make sense when this started was how much Flair hated these guys and wanted them out, it was perfect use of stories we'd already seen in WCW when the whole NWO thing was gold.

Ultimately, if Vince had kept Hogan heel, Nash stayed healthy, Hall stayed out of trouble, maybe the angle would have worked. Maybe Vince realized he was wrong to trust these guys and needs Flair and Austin to get rid of them would have worked, at least it would have made a little sense. And yes, WWE did add Curt Henning to the roster, a prominent NWO guy, around this time, but he was also fired around the same time as Hall.

Scott Steiner didnt come in till much later. His failures in WWE had a lot to do with poor booking, Steiner's Big Poppa Pump Character was a classic heel, having him act like that but wrestle fellow heels did not make him popular, it made fans want to cheer for the heels he was wrestling against. Steiner brought with him a world of behavior issues also, stories of him being hard to get along with back stage are plentiful through the years, and his bitter rants against WWE since his departure just make him sound small. If the NWO had lived long enough for him to join, he'd have killed it.